My new copywriting hero is Bernice Fitz-Gibbon (1894-1982), who was a famous retail copywriter and ad manager from the 1920s – 1960s. Her ads routinely appeared in the New York Times during that time period and she’s on Ad Age’s list of Top 100 people of the century.

Another reason I’m fond of her is because she grew up on a farm just 10 miles from me near Madison, WI and attended my alma mater, UW-Madison.

I recently read her delightful book Macy’s, Gimbels, and me; how to earn $90,000 a year in retail advertising, which she wrote in 1967 (and I suspect many copywriters today, 43 years later, would be happy with a $90K income).

In this book she includes a copy of a test of mythology, grammar and literature she gave to prospective copywriters when she ran their advertising department in the 1940s.

Before you read this test, keep in mind there wasn’t the slightest thing boring or stuffy about her copy (as you’ll see in my upcoming posts about her copy).

Rather, she believed knowledge like this was important because “it’s much easier to write with that what-the-hell abandon when you know and observe all the ground rules.” She also said “nothing else will give you the same surge of self-confidence that knowing the English language will give you.”

Here goes:

Who was sulking in his tent and why?

What was the Buddhists’ law of karma?

What is the Plimsoll mark?

Who was Lucullus?

What was the name of Don Quixote’s horse?

Why did Alfred let the cakes burn?

What was Veblen’s theory of conspicuous consumption?

Who was Caligula?

Why did Diogenes carry a lamp?

Explain Scylla and Charybdis.

What is a Judas goat?

Locate the Flea Market, Rotten Row, Epsom Downs.

Why did Thales fall into the well?

What is a Pythagorean theorem?

She also gave synonym tests. If the person couldn’t rattle off a sufficient number of synonyms, she didn’t hire them. If they told her that there’s no such thing as a synonym because each word has a different meaning, no two words are alike, she hired them.

In my next post I’ll feature some of her headlines and copywriting tips.

In the meantime, check out the book The 100 Greatest Advertisements 1852-1958 on Google Books. It’s only a preview, but you can see some cool vintage ads there. Enjoy!

The other day I went to the library and picked out three magazines I would normally never read, even if I was trapped in a waiting room for several hours with nothing else to read.

I did this to stretch myself and as practice for those times I have to research topics I’m not enthralled about (I highly recommend this exercise).

One of the magazines was Deer and Deer Hunting.

I know. Snooze city.

But I resolved to read it until I found something interesting.

I ended up reading the first article all the way through because the writer talked about how he used to think all expert Western bow hunters were crack shots at long distances.

He used to dutifully practice the long shots because he assumed it was a necessary skill.

It was only after several years of observing these expert hunters that he finally noticed that what made them great hunters is that they knew how to get close to deer. The average bow-kill distance is just 14 yards. Huh.

Of course I started thinking about how all this applies to email copywriting and business. There are several lessons but I’ll focus on this one:

Keeping your distance from your customers doesn’t work, ultimately.

You can run PPC campaigns, crank out articles, etc., but eventually you have to move in closer. One of the best ways to do that is through email.

Prospect emails, consumption emails sent after the sale, broadcast emails sent on a regular basis, emails for your affiliates to use… you should use all of these.

That’s a lot of email and it’s hard to keep it fresh.

So if you would like to outsource some of your email copy, here’s the deal: if you order a series of at least 5 emails from me, I’ll write one email for free. This applies to past customers too, not just new ones. Just mention this post.

I know that’s kind of a strange thing for an email copywriter to say.

But I just came across this cool quote by the late copywriter Howard Luck Gossage.

He used the word “advertising” but I’m going to substitute the word “email” because it applies perfectly to email as well.

Here goes:

“Nobody reads email. People read what interests them; and sometimes it’s an email.”

And here’s the part I wish every marketer would take to heart:

“Advertising is not a right, it’s a privilege.

Our first responsibility is not to the product, but to the public.

I don’t know how to speak to everybody, only to somebody.”

I recently came across a forum post where someone posted an email for critique.

It was a lousy email because it read like a mini sales letter. Not surprisingly, he later said he got a complaint rate of 0.8% As a result, his autoresponder service cancelled his account and he lost his list of 500 subscribers.

The bottom line:

Just because someone is on your list doesn’t mean you have the right to email them.

And if you write to somebody instead of to everybody, you won’t have to worry about complaint rates.